Guerrilla Job Hunter … or Goofball?

You may have seen the story about Joshua Persky, above.

He’s the unemployed banker who grabbed headlines in June for his “guerrilla” job search approach: standing on a street corner in New York City, handing out resumes, while wearing a sign that said, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad For Hire.”

He finally has a job, after nearly 6 months.

At first, I took umbrage with the idea that his job search was in any way guerrilla.

Unusual, yes. Creative, sure.

But a true Guerrilla Job Hunter uses Guerrilla Marketing tactics, first and foremost.

And wearing a sandwich board with the message, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad For Hire,” flunks Guerrilla Marketing 101 because, among other things, it’s not the least bit specific.

Experienced … in what? Accounting? Zoology?

For hire … for what? CEO? Custodian?

Don’t get me wrong — I’m very happy for Joshua and glad he’s found work.

But his sign might as well have said, “I’ll Do Anything.”

I don’t know what “anything” looks like. Never seen an HR description for “anything.” And, as a potential employer myself, I don’t have “anything” that needs doing.

But I do have accounting hassles I’d like to make go away. I am worried about taxes. And I wish someone would organize my filing cabinet.

Those are all specific needs that I’m willing to pay someone to help me with. Which is the definition of employment: filling a need in exchange for pay.

If our newly employed friend in New York had taken a true Guerrilla approach to his job search, he might still have tried the sandwich board ploy, but with a few important twists:

1) He would have researched 10-20 specific employers and stood outside their buildings on alternating days.

2) After researching employers, he would have written a customized sign for each, like this: “ATTN: Frank Jones, CEO of ABC, Inc. - I can solve your banking problems with the Finkbeiner account.”

3) He might have handed out apples … but only to employees of ABC. Taped to each apple would be a note that said: “Free Apple Pie if you get me a 15-min. interview with Frank Jones.”

After 7-14 days of this approach, he would have asked himself three questions:

1) What’s working? He would have done more of that, whether it was the signboard thing, doing press interviews, blogging, etc.

2) What’s not working? He would have changed or dropped any non-performing tactics.

3) What’s next? He would have planned the next week’s efforts in detail.

Final point: Below are examples of non-traditional job search tactics that I’m pretty sure failed, because they said, in effect, “Ill Do Anything.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 2:25 pm and is filed under job search tips. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.